Sungevity, Lowe's Cut Deal To Bring Solar To The Masses

The California-based solar leasing firm Sungevity announced a deal on Monday with home improvement giant Lowe's that could make obtaining a personalized estimate for installing solar panels a push-button affair at Lowe's outlets.

The deal gives Lowe's just under a 20 percent stake in Sungevity, according to a solar industry source, though neither company would discuss specific dollar figures.

Under the agreement, scheduled to launch in 30 Lowe's stores in California in July, customers will be able to access kiosks equipped with Sugevity's iQuote system, a Web-based application that allows homeowners to simply enter their address and receive a firm installation estimate within 24 hours, eliminating the expense of an on-site visit.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/sungevity-lowes-solar-masses_n_862641.html

THE TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY AND MERGING WITH MACHINES

The term "singularity," which is often heard today, comes originally from my field, theoretical physics. It denotes a point in space and time where the gravitational field becomes infinite. At the center of a black hole, for example, we might find a singularity. It also refers to a mathematical term where a certain function also becomes infinite. But the type of singularity that you have probably been hearing about the most lately is called "The Technological Singularity" and although its not a new concept, it's definitely becoming more of a mainstream topic of conversation.

Countless books on the subject are being published on a consistent basis, and Ray Kurzweil just recently launched his documentary, "The Transcendent Man" which shares his vision of a world in which humans merge with machines and is currently screening in sold-out screenings around the planet, web forums, blogs and video sites.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/31374

An App for Storing and Manipulating Links

Quiet Read is a Mac application–available in a free as well as a $10 “Pro” version–for saving and managing the links you collect as you browse the Web. Sure, you can use other services like Read It Later, Evernote,Delicious (and alternatives to Delicious) to keep track of all of your links. However, Quiet Read is described by its developer as “light and simple”: you highlight the URL in the address bar and then drag it to the menu bar icon to save it. That icon will display a number to let you know how many different links are currently stored in your inbox. With the paid “Pro” version you can export those links in a variety of different ways: directly to Instapaper, to Read It Later, to Delicious, or to Pinboard; as an HTML-encoded list; or as a CSV file.

If you frequently find yourself sharing lists of Web links with others, then this is a very useful app: it makes short work of turning a list of such links into a document (HTML) or spreadsheet (CSV).

How about you? Do you have a favorite strategy or software application to save and manage your links? In particular, is there a similar app for Windows? Let’s hear from you in the comments.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/an-app-for-storing-and-manipulating-links/33458

Skewer vs Balloon - Bang Goes The Theory - BBC One

Square Wheeled Skateboard - Bang Goes The Theory - BBC One

Dr Yan's Rotting Food Time Lapse - Bang Goes The Theory - BBC One

Hydraulic Fracking

Researchers Confirm Link between Hydraulic Fracking and Flammable Water
ProPublica is reporting a new scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with drinking water contamination, in some cases so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire. The researchers from Duke University found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when those water supplies were close to natural gas wells. The study was based on 68 drinking water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York State. In 2010, Josh Fox, the director of the documentary film Gasland, appeared on Democracy Now! and talked about how he filmed one man in Colorado who could light his faucet water on fire.
Josh Fox, director of Gasland : “So, a lot of people in that area, which is a heavy gas drilling area, would go ahead and test it themselves. And he discovered, lo and behold, that he could light his water on fire. So what you see right there is this enormous explosion coming right out of Mike’s sink. I ended up doing it myself, you know, and lighting the water on fire out of the sink."

Gas Firms Dispute Methane Contamination Study

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/10/natural-gas-fracking_n_859999.html

Fracking Linked To Methane In Flammable Drinking Water For First Time In Scientific Study

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/fracking-methane-flammable-drinking-water-study_n_859677.html

Neuroware

The future is here! Neuroware is reality! As a hat with fluffy cat ears...
If you're a sci-fi geek, you'll have been long waiting for neuroware - items that use your brain waves to control things such as phone communication, email, mapping and more. In the military, you could use neuroware to read vital signs of troops in the field and feed them info on their surrounds. In the consumer world, it could measure your interest levels in things you see and be used to feed you information on what matters to you.

Or, it could be used to power fluffy cat ears.

Yes, the neuroware world is here and it'll be used first to read your brain waves and have a set of animatronic cat ears react to your emotions.

Concentrate and your ears perk up. Get sad and they drop.

We created new human's organs that use brain wave sensor.
"necomimi"is the new communication tool
that augments human's body and ability.

http://www.facebook.com/neurowear

http://neurowear.net/

Many people experienced our neurowear "necomimi". It works with your brain signal.



So what other nifty pieces of human-robot singularity are Japanese researchers working on?

Curved Mirrors

For a spherical mirror, an object at the mirror's center has an image that is also at the center. Its magnification is −1

Senior Staff Scientist Thomas Humphrey invents a simple experiment to see if the Giant Mirror is spherical or parabolic. By placing a ping pong ball at the center of curvature, he's able to prove the mirror is out of pure sphericity by about one-quarter of one degree.


Exhibit developer Erik walks backward, away from the giant spherical mirror. Watch how moving through the mirror's focal point and center of curvature changes everything.

UMKC Physics Department's Professor Jerzy Wrobel explains how spherical mirrors produce images. He shows how to construct a ray diagram and use the mirror equation.

UMKC Physics Department's Professor Jerzy Wrobel explains the necessary condition for seeing an object and the formation of images by a flat refractive surface and plane mirror. He discusses conditions for total internal reflection and evaluates the critical angle.

Scientists Find Einstein's "Missing Inch"

Physicists at Stanford, who have spearheaded the billion-dollar Gravity Probe B mission, have announced that they have found Einstein's missing inch, once again proving the correctness of general relativity.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38310

Picturing Proteins in 3-D

University of Arkansas biochemist James Hinton created a virtual reality program to help students understand the structure and function of proteins.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/05/3d-proteins-the-big-picture.html

Tech Giants Sony, Apple, Google Face Outrage Over Privacy Breaches in Devices

Technology giants Sony, Apple and Google have all faced major scandals in recent weeks that raise a host of questions about privacy in the digital age. Apple’s popular iPhone was designed to secretly track a user’s location without the user’s knowledge, and so was Google’s Android system for smartphones. Sony’s PlayStation Network has exposed the personal records of more than 100 million of its customers. We speak to Mark Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who notes that in addition to privacy breaches, these private companies are essentially doing a better job with popular surveillance than the government, creating a detailed personal record that then can be released by a subpoena.

Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/6/tech_giants_sony_apple_google_face

Gmail Tips: 9 Easy Tricks And Tools To Keep Your Inbox Under Control

Earlier this week, Gmail posted a few tips for "powering through hundreds of messages." They're helpful for sure, but we wanted to share some of our other favorites that help us deal with the endless flood.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-set-up-gmail-to-power-through.html

While Gmail's Priority Inbox is surprisingly good at figuring out what's important, we recommend setting up a few quick filters, labels and tools of your own for even more control. It might take a bit more time, but these 9 tips will help you whip your inbox into shape, stay organized and cut down on email clutter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/31/google-priority-inbox-lau_n_700207.html

If we missed any of your favorites, share them in the comments below, or upload them using the "Add a Slide" tool!

If you found these tips helpful, you might also like our 21 essential Gmail tricks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/18/gmail-tools-tips-tricks_n_785418.html#s185538&title=Undo_Send

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/05/gmail-tips-tricks-tools-inbox_n_857151.html#s273736&title=Get_Organized_With

Walking With Robots:

A Look Inside Exciting New Technology From Berkeley Bionics (TCTV)

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/04/walking-with-robots-a-look-inside-exciting-new-technology-from-berkeley-bionics-tctv/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Harnessing direct solar energy – a progress report

alternative energy sources. Energy sources different from those in widespread use at the moment (which are referred to as conventional). Alternative energy usually includes solar, wind, wave, tidal, hydroelectric and geothermal energy. Although they each have their own drawbacks, none of these energy sources produces significant air pollution, unlike conventional sources.

fossil fuels. Carbon or hydrocarbon fuels, derived from what was living material, and found underground or beneath the sea. The most common forms are coal, oil and natural gas. They take millions of years to form. Their energy is only released upon burning, when the carbon and hydrogen within them combine with the oxygen in air to form carbon dioxide (CO2 ), or carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O). Other elements within the fuels (such as sulfur or nitrogen) are also released into the air after combining with oxygen, causing further pollution with SO2 and nitrogen oxide gases. In the case of coal, ash particles are also a problem.

non-renewable energy. Used to describe energy sources that exist in a limited amount on Earth. Thus all available material could eventually be completely used up. Coal, oil and gas (see fossil fuels) are considered as non-renewable energy sources because the rate of their formation is so slow on human timescales that they we are using them without them being replaced. Uranium (used in nuclear power) is also non-renewable, although its reserves are very large compared to its rate of use. Compare renewable energy.

passive solar heating. The use of the sun to heat buildings. Careful design and positioning of buildings can ensure that sunlight in the winter months will warm them by day, with much of the warmth remaining during the night. Summer sunlight is usually kept out. This does not involve the conversion or harnessing of solar energy.

photovoltaic (PV) cells. Also known as solar cells. A photovoltaic cell is made of thin wafers of two slightly different types of silicon. One, doped with tiny quantities of boron, is called P-type (P for positive) and contains positively charged 'holes', which are missing electrons. (Electrons are negatively charged particles that orbit the nuclei of atoms.) The other type of silicon is doped with small amounts of phosphorus and is called N-type (N for negative). It contains extra electrons. Putting these two thin P and N materials together produces a junction which, when exposed to light, will produce a movement of electrons – and that constitutes an electric current. Photovoltaic cells thus convert light energy into electrical energy.

http://www.science.org.au/nova/005/005glo.htm

Can society meet its energy needs without pollution?

http://www.science.org.au/nova/005/005key.htm

Compared to fossil fuels, sunlight is a weak energy source
Capturing sunlight is not as easy as it sounds. It is a dilute energy source, spread out over time and space. Earth receives 5.6 x 10^18 megajoules of solar radiation each year, but to make it worthwhile we need to collect it over many hours and across many square metres of ground. We then need to concentrate it so as to make available the sort of power that modern society needs. Sunlight is not as ‘energy-dense’ as oil but this is made up for by the fact that it is present over such a large area.

By careful design and positioning of houses we can use sunlight to warm our homes and our domestic water. This passive solar heating can help us reduce fossil fuel use (and save money) but it’s not enough to replace those traditional fuels entirely.

Solar Energy: New Research

Solar energy is derived ultimately from the sun. It can be divided into direct and indirect categories. Most energy sources on Earth are forms of indirect solar energy, although we usually don’t think of them in that way. Coal, oil and natural gas derive from ancient biological material which took its energy from the sun (via plant photosynthesis) millions of years ago. All the energy in wood and foodstuffs also comes from the sun. Movement of the wind (which causes waves at sea), and the evaporation of water to form rainfall which accumulates in rivers and lakes, are also powered by the sun. Therefore, hydroelectric power and wind and wave power are forms of indirect solar energy. Direct solar energy is what we usually mean when we speak of solar power – it is the use of sunlight for heating or generating electricity. Solar energy research and applications have been receiving increasing attention throughout the world as solar energy must play a much greater role in the energy mix in upcoming years. This new book examines new research in this frontier field.

https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3819

Creating Renewable Energy from Living Organisms

The death and fossilization of plants and animals gave us the dirty energy we rely on today; but it's living organisms that will give us the clean energy of the future.

In recent years, researchers have more aggressively explored how plants, animals, fungi and bacteria can help us develop next-generation fuels and electricity. Nature, it seems, has much to teach about the efficiency of energy conversion and consumption.

Take photosynthesis, for example. When a plant’s pigment molecules absorb photons, they enter an excited state that is moved to the “reaction center,” a chlorophyll molecule called the protein complex. The reaction center is where the plant first generates chemical energy. This energy transfer is instantaneous and happens with almost 100 percent efficiency. Now researchers are trying to figure out how to design photovoltaic cells that mimic this virtually flawless process.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2008/04/creating-renewable-energy-from-living-organisms-52070

The Roof is on Fire: Solar Shingles Let you Green on the Sly

Apparently, it’s getting easier to be green on the sly. A new generation of rooftop solar energy collectors is here, and they’re not the huge, cumbersome solar panels we’re used to. These actually look like part of the roof. American chemical giant Dow (or, rather, their Dow Solar division) recently announced their building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roof shingles, which they say will bring affordable solar power to more homes. There isn’t yet any pricing information available, so we have to wonder what Dow considers “affordable.” But the panels do, in fact, look much more integrated with the home than huge, wing-like solar panels. And with some homeowners’ associations banning the large panels, this may be just the answer for solar-minded homeowners.

http://gajitz.com/the-roof-is-on-fire-solar-shingles-let-you-green-on-the-sly/

Dow's Powerhouse Solar Shingles promise to turn sunlight into savings. Consumer Reports takes a look at the 2010 International Builders' Show. Learn more about roofing and siding on our web site

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/home-improvement/index.htm?EXTKEY=I93YT01&CMP=OTC-YUTBE

Power Trip: Leafy Solar Panels Take Over Walls Like Plants

Solar panels have long been the first thing that comes to mind when we think about incorporating eco-friendly energy solutions into daily life. But traditional solar panels have their drawbacks, most notably that they only catch a portion of the sunlight falling on a building. A company called SMIT wants to increase the amount of solar energy captured by “green” homes by covering them with solar panels that mimic crawling ivy plants.

http://gajitz.com/power-trip-leafy-solar-panels-take-over-walls-like-plants/

Follow the Sun: Are Smart Solar Road Panels our Future?

It makes sense if you think about it: using highways to collect solar power. The Interstate System in the U.S. is comprised of over 46,000 miles of road, and a startup company called Solar Roadways was recently granted $100,000 by the Department of Transportation to develop their 12 foot-by-12 foot solar-collecting road panels. According to Solar Roadways, the panels can be set into roads to not only provide an improved driving surface, but to collect solar power that will be put into the existing electric grid.

http://gajitz.com/follow-the-sun-are-smart-solar-road-panels-our-future/

A Sunny Concept: Clothesline Solar Power Collectors

We all know the benefits of hanging our laundry out to dry: it saves money and energy over using a tumble dryer, and your clothes and linens smell great when you pull them inside. Seeing laundry hanging outside on clotheslines gave designer Jinsic Kim another idea for saving energy: hanging small solar panels outside to soak up the sun.

http://gajitz.com/a-sunny-concept-clothesline-solar-power-collectors/

Rule Free: LED Pen Ruler Traces Distances, Measures Curves

For point-to-point measurements along a straight line, the answer has long been obvious to architects and engineers. But in a world with increasingly unusual built forms, not to mention mapped courses that are not always narrowly linear, this neat concept design offers a slim and elegant solution.

http://dornob.com/rule-free-led-pen-ruler-traces-distances-measures-curves/

10 Ways to Find Blogs You’ll Love

http://mashable.com/2011/04/11/blog-discovery/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

REViEW: YourVersion (iPhone and iPad)

http://appvader.com/2011/04/review-yourversion-iphone-and-ipad/

YourVersion in the News

http://www.yourversion.com/press/